


What's This?

by TheSpiderThatKnowsThePlan



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Universe - BDSM, Anxiety, Christmas, Dom!Patrick, Dom/sub, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Schmoop, Sub!Pete
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 11:43:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17507957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpiderThatKnowsThePlan/pseuds/TheSpiderThatKnowsThePlan
Summary: Pete wants to make this Christmas perfect and please his Dom. Nothing goes the way Pete plans, and Pete's anxiety starts to get the better of him. Patrick and Pete are so incredibly schmoopy and in lurve.





	What's This?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [auralexander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/auralexander/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Head Over Tail](https://archiveofourown.org/works/521335) by [darkangel0410](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkangel0410/pseuds/darkangel0410). 



> I wrote this a few years ago under the pseud SelketsChild, after being so incredibly impressed with "Scars and Souvenirs" by darkangel0410. It seems my old ways have come back to haunt me. :)

Pete loves Christmas. He loves holidays in general, but Christmas is second only to Halloween in his heart. Well, third after every day since Patrick claimed him as his sub. He really wants to pick the perfect gift to make his Dom happy.

And decorate the house from top to bottom.

And he wants snow.

And maybe a reindeer for the front yard. No, not those light-up reindeer (although they’re pretty). Pete wants to find a _real_ reindeer. And name him Blitzen.

He tells Patrick all this over breakfast. Animatedly, and at great length. However, breakfast means morning, because Patrick had promised they could go out Christmas tree shopping in the actual daylight hours. This means Patrick is decidedly monosyllabic and really not yet prepared to keep up with Pete’s hyperactive rambling.

Except that he kind of finds it to be totally endearing and one of the things he really loves about Pete. In the nine years they’ve been bonded, and the ten or more they’ve known each other, still so incredibly rare are the times when Pete is in a state of such unadulterated joy, no sneaky black clouds lingering in his mind. So he just sighs into his cereal and smiles a little as he shakes his head.

He means it affectionately, really.

Pete stops in the middle of a sentence about trying to dress Hemmingway up as an elf and looks at Patrick. He immediately thinks something is wrong and pushes back from the table like he’s about to reposition at Patrick’s feet (even though Patrick has made it clear that he prefers to sit across from Pete at meals, despite Pete’s protests). A look of worry is on Pete’s face.

Patrick looks up now, finding some composure, and puts a hand up. “No, Pete, don’t. Everything’s fine. It’s just early.” Pete freezes and immediately raises a reflexive hand to his collar, tilting his head a little in response to Patrick’s clear command. Patrick holds a hand out across the table, and Pete pushes his chair back in as Patrick takes Pete’s hand in one of his and with the other cradles his sub’s face. Patrick sighs and says, “Don’t worry yourself like that. I love you so much, and I love seeing you so happy and excited. Like I said, I’m just not really awake yet.”

Pete relaxes immediately at Patrick’s touch, and breathes out heavily. “I love you too, Patrick.”

Patrick smiles warmly and softly says, “Come on, let’s go get cleaned up and go pick out a tree.”

Pete leaps up from the table immediately with a huge grin on his face while Patrick puts his bowl in the sink. He knows what that means.

He runs upstairs ahead of Patrick and turns the shower on so it’s hot by the time Patrick gets there. He’s already kneeling, still clothed, on the bathroom floor by the time His Dom comes in. Patrick smiles at the warm bathroom and a ready sub. He hums contentedly as he takes Pete’s shoulders and stands him up.

“So good for me, always,” Patrick says in Pete’s ear in that low, soothing voice that sends shivers down Pete’s spine. Pete gives a genuine smile, the one that only seems to come from making Patrick happy. The smile that’s only for his Dom.

“That’s all I ever want,” he says softly.

“Come on,” Patrick beckons, pulling his own shirt off. “I want you to undress that gorgeous body for me, and we’re going to get in the shower together.”

Pete nods eagerly and tries to make as much of a show of getting naked as he can, but he’s so excited that his arm gets caught with his shirt over his head, causing Patrick to start laughing and help him pull it the rest of the way off. Pete looks down at his feet. Patrick immediately shakes his head, an affectionate smile on his face, and takes Pete’s face and kisses him firmly, sliding his hands down to take Pete’s pajama bottoms off for him.

“Stop worrying,” he commands, and Pete’s body responds to the tone accordingly. “Come on, we’re wasting water.”

Patrick uses the time, naked, warm, and wet, to make sure Pete forgets anything that could possibly have been troubling him, at least for a few minutes.

******

Pete hems and haws, unable to decide. On the one hand is a perfect, lush, full tree, not too big, that will sit so nicely in the corner of their living room. On the other hand, there’s an adorable little bare tree that makes Pete think of Charlie Brown Christmas, and he can’t decide between pretty and traditional, and cute and kitschy.

“Pete,” Patrick says sternly. “We did kitschy last year with that hideous rainbow-filament tree you insisted on having. Let’s do a regular tree this year.”

Pete turns to Patrick with a kicked-puppy expression. “You didn’t like the Disco Tree?” he said softly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Patrick tugs on Pete’s scarf, kisses the side of his head, and says, “Because you loved it so much, and I didn’t want you to think you had to change everything just for me. You already do everything for me, and I wanted to let you have that.”

Pete smiles and says the sincerest “Thank you” he’s ever said to Patrick. Well, that he’s said today, at least.

Just then, Patrick’s phone rings in his pocket. “Shit,” he mutters. “It’s Spencer. I’d better take this. Wait right here. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. If the salesperson comes, why don’t you just tell him we want that tree?” He points at the full, pretty tree, and Pete nods happily.

While Patrick is discussing studio schedules with Spencer, always within Pete’s line of sight, the salesperson does in fact approach.

“Can I help you?”

Pete points at the tree and says, “We’d like this one, please.”

The young man’s face lights up and he says, “No way! Are you Pete Wentz?”

Pete puts his hands out and said, “Dude, please, keep it down a little?”

“Where’s Patrick?” he pushes on excitedly.

“Look, man, can we just buy the tree?” Pete pleads. People are starting to stare.

The boy says, “I’d like to help you Mr. Wentz, but subs can’t authorize purchases here. We need a Dom or a parent.”

“Are you serious?” Pete challenges, feeling an old itch under his skin. “Dude, I was on my own as an uncollared adult for five years. I’m pretty sure I can buy a fuckin’ Christmas tree.”

The salesperson takes a step back. “Look, I’m sorry. Take it easy, OK? Just my boss’s rules.”

“Well, I think I’d like to speak with him, then.” Pete is furious now. It’s all he can do not to punch the guy out. He knows Patrick wouldn’t like that, but it’s getting difficult to hold back on that old impulse. He can feel his fists balling of their own accord.

A firm hand comes down on Pete’s shoulder and a soothing, strong voice says, “I don’t think that will be necessary. Come on, Pete. We’ll find a tree somewhere else.” Pete immediately tilts his head toward Patrick’s command. He feels a creeping, crawling sensation of shame as Patrick puts an arm around his shoulders and starts to lead him away. Patrick then turns away from Pete and says to the boy, “Your boss really needs to consider how he treats subs. Imagine how it looks to lose a sale from half of Fall Out Boy in front of all these people.” At that, Pete smirks triumphantly and resists the urge to throw that expression at the boy. He feels pride swelling up at how his Dom stood up for him, and even more blinding, painfully overwhelming love for how _Patrick_ had stood up for him.

******

They do get a tree, without Pete pitching another fit. Unfortunately, this is just about the only thing that goes right for Pete.

Pete’s favorite ornament, the first one he and Patrick had bought together after they were bonded, was broken in the move to their new house. The rest were fine, thankfully, and Patrick managed to glue the broken one together.

The the elf costume for Hemmingway doesn’t fit him, and he bites Pete while he’s trying to pull it back off of him. Patrick bandages up Pete’s hand and kisses the back of it, right over the gauze.

Pete can’t find anyone selling, renting, or even lending reindeer. Not even for the great Pete Wentz.

He figures he can make up for Patrick cleaning up all his messes by buying him a gorgeous new red-and-black flogger. He even dyed his bangs partially red to match it. Of course, though, they sent the wrong one. The handle is electric blue. Pete likes it fine, but he’s going to have to change his hair now. Once he gets the flogger wrapped, he goes and gets blue dye for his hair.

Unfortunately, he forgets to strip the red in his haste, and it turns purple. This, as they say, is the last straw.

Patrick comes home to Pete in the bathroom in just his boxers, huddled in the corner with his legs hugged against his chest. Dark streaks of hair dye run down his face and legs as he cries against his knees.

“Oh my God, Pete, what’s wrong? What happened?” Patrick comes over to Pete, crouches down, and takes his shoulder.

Pete jumps immediately and shrinks back from Patrick’s touch, then scrambles to his knees and clasps his hands behind his back, bowing his head. The dye drips onto the floor between his thighs.

“Sir, I… I’m sorry… I… I tried… I wanted…” Pete fumbled and stammered between sobs. His breath was coming in great hitches and heaves. “I… I’m sorry sir.”

Patrick’s brow furrows with confusion and concern as he tilts his sub’s face up to look at him.

“Pete, please don’t do that. What’s the matter? Just take a deep breath and talk to me, please?”

“I… I… I couldn’t get a tree right, and then our ornament broke, and, and then Hemmy’s costume… and then no one would let me have a reindeer, even just for a little while, and… your present… they sent the wrong one and… I, I-I tried to f-fix it but… it turned the wrong color…”

Pete risks bringing a hand up to his bangs. “They were supposed to be blue! To match your present!” he wails, putting his hands back behind him and moving his face away from Patrick’s touch, bowing his head again.

Patrick turns Pete’s face back up toward his own again, holding the side of his head firmly. Pete’s sobs calm immediately and his mouth falls open slightly at the feel of his Dom’s hand on him, so firm and comforting. Pete can’t help expecting Patrick’s face to wear disappointment in him. Even though it’s never happened except for the times Pete’s put himself in direct danger, Pete can’t help it.

Especially now.

“Pete, tell me what’s upsetting you so much, please?” Patrick could issue this as a command, make him talk, but he feels like that would make things worse right now. He holds Pete’s shoulders and begs him again. “Pete, please, talk to me.”

Pete takes a deep breath, wipes his eyes, and repositions himself so his feet are to the side of his hip and his ass is on the floor. Patrick sits down the same way, grabbing a towel off the rack and gently drying Pete’s head, giving him time to gather his thoughts.

“I just… I wanted everything this Christmas to be perfect. For you. I mean, this is our last…” he hitches a little and then goes on, “our last Christmas together before our contract is up, and I… I wanted to do everything just right so you’d be pleased with me and… and you’d want to keep me, still. And then, everything just kept going wrong and you kept having to fix everything but… I don’t always want to be a problem you have to fix. I wanted to show you how good I could make things for you, all by myself, and… I just… everything kept getting all messed up… and, I’m so sorry, S—Patrick.”

Patrick’s face crumples as he fights the tears that sting his eyes at the sight of his sub, his Pete, in such anguish. All this time, and he still thinks Patrick could ever possibly give him up. He gathers the towel around Pete’s neck and takes his face in his hands, kissing him firmly. Pete whimpers and puts a hand over one of Patrick’s. Patrick pulls back and Pete’s eyes still stay drooped shut as he sighs dreamily.

“Oh, Pete,” Patrick sighs, “Pete, every single Christmas ever—every day since you let me claim you—has already been perfect. Even when I was on a deadline, or sleep-deprived, or sick, or when we weren’t in Fall Out Boy, every day with you was the best day ever for me. Hasn’t it been for you?”

“Yes.” Pete answers this firmly, without hesitation. “Yes, Patrick.”

“And this Christmas was going to be amazing, too, no matter what, really. You do know that, right?”

Pete shrugs a little and looks away. “I suppose I do. Know that.”

Patrick smiles a little. “And do you know why?”

Pete sighs and looks at Patrick. “Because we’re together?”

Patrick gives a relieved, satisfied sigh and gathers Pete against his chest. “That’s right, Pete. As long as we have each other, everything is always going to be the best it can possibly be. The only time things started going wrong was when you started worrying and getting yourself all wound up. You do realize that, right? I mean, you have to know that you could never do anything to make me want to give up my claim on you. Ever.” He pulls Pete back and takes his face again so they are looking at each other. “Never, Pete. I will always want you as my sub, and I will always love you, no matter what.”

Relief washes over Pete at hearing these words. “Really?”

Patrick nods and swallows hard around the lump in his throat. “Really, Pete. You’re everything to me. I will always want you.”

Pete smiles that big, genuine, only-for-Patrick smile. “You’re everything to me, too. I love you, Patrick.”

Patrick gives a bemused smile and looks up at his sub’s wet hair. “I can see that. You’ve really gone to the ends of the earth, haven’t you?” Pete nods. “Come on, get dried off and get some clothes on. Since now I’ve ruined the surprise of my Christmas present to you, I want to see this present you got for me.” Pete nods again, more eagerly and sets about doing what he’s told.

When he comes to the living room, Patrick is sitting there, already in a t-shirt and pajama pants.

Pete grabs the wrapped box and sits himself at his Dom’s feet, presenting it to him with a look of adoration on his face. As soon as Patrick takes it, Pete wraps his arms around Patrick’s calf and puts his cheek on his thigh, still staring up at him.

The moment Patrick sees the gift, his eyes widen with delight as he looks back at his sub. He brings a hand to Pete’s bangs, smirking wickedly. “Aha, now I understand,” he croons. “This was supposed to match, wasn’t it?” Pete nods, letting his eyes slip shut. “Well, it’s a good idea. I like the purple on you too, though. You’re so beautiful.” Patrick lets his fingers trail down the side of Pete’s face to his collar as Pete purrs at the attention. “So beautiful and so good. Always so good for me.” Pete moans softly at this praise.

Patrick pulls the flogger out of the box and rotates his wrist, letting the tails trail around his hand.

“So, Pete,” he says, his voice low. “I’m guessing this means you’d like to play?” Pete’s eyes fly open and he looks up at his Dom, nodding against his thigh. Patrick hums contentedly and cradles Pete’s face. “You’ve worked so hard, I think you deserve a scene. Would you like that? Calm that big, busy brain of yours?” Pete nods again and tries to say yes with his mouth, but all that comes out is a breathy whimper. Patrick gently guides his sub to stand up and leads them both to the bedroom.

******

Later, as Patrick is cleaning Pete’s back an applying salve to the welts, a little of the pleasant fog starts to recede and something suddenly occurs to Pete.

“Patrick?” he says drowsily.

“Yes, Pete?” his Dom replies calmly, evenly. “I’m here.”

“I know. I’m OK. I just… wondered… you, uh… you said you accidentally ruined the surprise of… what your Christmas present for me was?”

Patrick nods, but then realizes Pete can’t see him right now, since he’s on his stomach. “Yes, I did. I suppose I may as well tell you. I’m having a new contract drawn up. For us. So I can keep you.”

“For how long?” Pete asks without really thinking about it.

“Well, for as long as you want. I was going to talk to you about that. I want you to decide that.”

“Me? Well… what do you want?”

Patrick laughs as he lies down beside Pete and pulls the sheet up over both of them. He props himself up on his elbow and looks at Pete, his face full of love. “I asked you first, asshole,” he says, with no venom in it.

Pete sighs happily, opens his eyes, and fixes them on Patrick, the love of his fucking life. Without any waver in his voice, without any trace of doubt or self-deprecation, he says, “I want it to be permanent.”

Patrick lets out a breath, lets his face crumple with joy and relief, and palms the side of Pete’s face.

“Oh, thank God,” he whispers. “That’s what I wanted, too, but I wanted to hear you say it first. I wanted it to be your choice.”

“You’re always my choice,” Pete says, his voice getting thick with sleep. “So now you’re stuck with my ass forever.” He smirks as he says this.

Patrick leans in and kisses his sub possessively, passionately. Pete gives a little moan into his Dom’s mouth. “Forever,” Patrick says softly, against Pete’s mouth, “is perfect.”


End file.
